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From the Impasse to the Breakthrough: The Brain Basis for Insightful Problem Solving Luo Jing;Zhang Xiuling 2006, 14 (4):  484-489.  Abstract ( 1747 )   PDF (370KB) ( 3040 )   During 1913 to 1920, Kohler conducted his classic studies on insight. This discovery greatly challenged the dominating trial-and-error theory at that time. However, psychologist started to investigate the brain basis of insight only recently. This review discussed how to use neuroimaging methods to investigate the neural correlates of insight, the brain areas involved in insight were also considered Related Articles | Metrics

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One Year of Progress in Research on Behavioral Decision-Making Li Shu 2006, 14 (4):  490-496.  Abstract ( 2285 )   PDF (382KB) ( 4047 )   Behavioral decision making is the study of how people make decisions. It hopes to describe these processes in ways that will eventually help people to make better decisions. Nowadays, the understanding and improvement of decision behavior continues to be an important area of research. In this invited paper, the Team of Behavioral Decision Making at Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, its research areas and its orientation were debriefed. The most recent research results of the team members since 2005 were presented and discussed. The team’s mission was recognized as to foster an understanding of those elements of human behavior, both cognitive and affective (emotional) that influence the decision-making process in all social and economic contexts and settings Related Articles | Metrics

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Human Spatial Memory and Spatial Navigation Mou Weimin;Zhao Mintao;Li Xiaoou 2006, 14 (4):  497-504.  Abstract ( 1379 )   PDF (442KB) ( 3495 )   How is the configuration of the surrounding environment represented in human memory, and how does this spatial representation guide human navigation? These questions are being tackled by an endeavor of multiple disciplines including Psychology, Neuroscience, Geography, and Artificial Intelligence. This paper reviewed the research of our lab and collaborators addressing the above questions in three series of studies including intrinsic model of spatial memory, the allocentric and egocentric spatial updating, and body and environmental stabilized processing of spatial knowledge during locomotion Related Articles | Metrics

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Effects of Emotion on Cognitive Processing: Series of Event-Related Potentials Study Luo ;Huang ;Li Xinying;Li Xuebing 2006, 14 (4):  505-510.  Abstract ( 2940 )   PDF (377KB) ( 5405 )   Aiming at the relationship of emotion and cognition, our research group established four series of affective stimulating system including scene pictures, emotional faces, Chinese characters and sounds. Using these materials, we explored the emotional influences on attention and working memory, and the cognitive patterns of trait anxiety persons through series of ERP experiments. The results showed that: a). emotional negative stimuli possessed some kind superiority in several stages of information processing, such as attention, evaluation and reaction readiness, etc. Attentional bias was observed in an implicit task either. It seems that negative stimuli can compensate the shortage of attentional resources to some extent. b). the visual processing was modulated by the former threatening visual cues. High anxious persons intend to pay more attention to them. Further more, threatening visual stimuli influenced the haptic attention, i.e., it was a cross-modal effect. c). in a spatial working memory task, the amplitudes of P300 were reduced by the negative emotion, while this was not observed in a verbal task. It was inferred that the spatial working memory effect might be mediated by the parietal attentional system Related Articles | Metrics

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Research on Psychoneuroimmunology Lin Wenjuan 2006, 14 (4):  511-516.  Abstract ( 2068 )   PDF (362KB) ( 4444 )   An interdisciplinary research field of Psychoneuroimmunology focuses on the research of the interactions among the behavior, the nervous system, the endocrine system, and the immune system. It emphasizes that psychological or behavioral factors can influence immune function and therefore influence health and susceptibility to disease. However, the evidence for direct links between psychological processes and immune function is unconvincing. This review is concerned with the examination of the role of psycho-behavioral factors in the modulation of immune function and the related mechanisms. In contrast to review the evidence or data published in extensive literature, this review is only an attempt to cover the studies conducted in our own laboratory. These studies include conditioned immunity of both suppression and enhancement, effect of emotional stress, and psychological intervention in cancer patients. Evidence from the three lines of experimental data suggests that psychological processes, such as associative learning, emotion, and behavioral imagination do influence the immune function. The related mechanisms are also discussed Related Articles | Metrics

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Dynamic Coding of Nociceptive Somatosensory Information in Central Neuromatrix Luo Fei;Wang Jinyan 2006, 14 (4):  517-521.  Abstract ( 2143 )   PDF (354KB) ( 2704 )   Acute pain is a protective sensation that serves to warn us of impending harm. Chronic pain syndromes, on the other hand, are a group of resistant diseases consuming large amount of health care costs. Recent studies revealed that pain perception is formed via large-scale coding processes in central neural networks, involving several dimensions such as sensory, affective, and cognitive. Brain structures from spinal cord, brain stem, limbic system, to cortices are involved in these processes. Nevertheless, chronic painful diseases are suggested to be a result of some abnormal coding within this network. A thorough investigation of coding mechanism of pain within the central neuromatrix will give much insight into the mechanisms responsible for the development of chronic pain, hence helping lead to novel therapeutic interventions for pain management Related Articles | Metrics

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The Brain Mechanisms of Psychological Dependence and Relapse of Abusive Drugs Zheng Xigeng;Li Yonghui;Sui Nan 2006, 14 (4):  522-531.  Abstract ( 1719 )   PDF (620KB) ( 2253 )   This project focuses on investigations of the brain mechanisms of the psychological dependence of abusive drugs. By using various animal models, such as conditioned place preference (CPP), conditioned place aversion (CPA), drug-seeking intensity gradation model of Morris water maze, behavioral and conditioned behavioral sensitization, the roles of environmental stress, positive and negative emotional states on psychological dependence and its relapse, neural mechanism comparisons between drug reward and natural reward were explored from behavioral to neuronal and genetic level Related Articles | Metrics

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Motor, Language, and Learning: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Cerebellum Lin Chongyu;Weng Xuchu 2006, 14 (4):  532-539.  Abstract ( 2281 )   PDF (520KB) ( 3580 )   The past century has witnessed slow but steady progress in understanding the function of the cerebellum, while most significant insights are gained within the past two decades owing to the advent of in vivo neuroimaging techniques, functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) in particular. This article summarizes our recent fMRI studies, in which we examined the involvement of the cerebellum in motor, language and learning tasks. Theoretical implications of these studies are discussed in relation with relevant literature. The paper concludes with two inter-dependent conclusions: the functioning of the cerebellum in nature appears to be generalized rather than modality-specific, dynamic rather than static, correlational rather than isolated; consequently, it is very likely that investigation of the mechanisms underlying interactions and cooperation between the cerebellum and the cerebral cortex will become a new perspective in the field Related Articles | Metrics

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The Advance of Behavioral Genetics Studies on Adolescent Anxiety, Depression and Deviant Behaviors Chen Zhiyan;Li Xinying;Yang Xiaodong;Ge Xiaojia 2006, 14 (4):  540-545.  Abstract ( 2748 )   PDF (373KB) ( 4029 )   Behavioral genetics researches on adolescent emotional and behavioral problems have shown that both genetic and enviormental influences on depression, anxiety and deviant behaviors. For the last two decades, the new advances of behavioral genetics methods have provided researchers better opportunities to elucidate the mechanisms of gene and enviornment interactions. It is also a opportune time for psychologists to be involved in the investiagtion of the effect of gene and enviornment interaction on psychological development. We reviewed the current status of related researches and discussed the significance of developing Chinese twin registry for carrying out behavioral genetics research on adolescent emotional and behavioral problems Related Articles | Metrics

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Studies on Speech Prosody Yang Yufang;Haung Xianjun;Gao Lu 2006, 14 (4):  546-550.  Abstract ( 2177 )   PDF (269KB) ( 3851 )   Prosody is the phonological structure of spoken language, plays important role in speech production and comprehension. This paper reviewed a series investigations on prosody conducted in the Lab of Spoken Language Processing in recent years. (1) The intonation and declination of fundamental frequency in Chinese sentences, prosodic boundaries in discourses and their perceptually relevant acoustic cues were investigated with both psychological experiments and speech corpus analyses. The results give a support in “two contours theory” of Chinese intonation and the existence of F0 declination; (2)The relations between accentuation, syntactic structure, and information structure, as well as the rules of assignment of prosodic phrase boundaries and focuses in written sentences and discourses were investigated with the methods of both statistical analyses and knowledge discovery on the bases of labeled speech corpus. (3)The roles of prosody in information integration and pronoun understanding in discourses were explored with both behavioral and ERP experiments. The consequence of the results for the development of speech engineering system and implications for the theories of spoken discourse processing were discussed Related Articles | Metrics

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Interaction of Representation, Processing, and Control on Cognition Fu Xiaolan 2006, 14 (4):  551-559.  Abstract ( 1570 )   PDF (335KB) ( 2065 )   he three-element interaction model (TIM) focuses on the interaction of representation, processing, and control on cognitive activities. Representation includes internal representation and external representation，processing includes automatic processing and controlled processing, and control includes automatic control and conscious control. There are four characteristics in cognitive activities: complexity and variability of representation, simplicity and programming of processing, validity and flexibility of control，and the role of other factors (e.g., culture, emotion, motivation, and personality). A series of studies based on the TIM were complete Related Articles | Metrics

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Cognitive Aging and Mental Health in the Elderly Li Deming;Chen Tianyong 2006, 14 (4):  560-564.  Abstract ( 2717 )   PDF (209KB) ( 5213 )   Cognitive function and mental health are two essential elements of healthy aging. Cognitive functions accelerated declined with increased age. Studies on mechanism of cognitive aging indicated that processing speed, working memory and executive function play important roles in the normal aging of cognitive abilities. The level of mental health and life satisfaction in most of the elderly was relatively high, and the state of mind tended to quiet and satisfaction with increased age. However, more attention should be paid to mental health problems in empty nest and/or single living elderly. Cognitive function and mental health of the elderly were influenced by many factors. These results provide useful suggestions on how to moderate the decline of cognitive functions and keep mental health of the elderly Related Articles | Metrics

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Study on Individual Differences with Intellectually Supernormal Samples Shi Jiannong 2006, 14 (4):  565-568.  Abstract ( 2262 )   PDF (1298KB) ( 2336 )   Questions pertaining to individual differences are very much intriguing to psychologists as well as to the public. The author and his research group have intensively been involved in the field of research on individual differences with special samples such as intellectually supernormal children compared with intellectually average samples in the last ten years. Issues such as “why someone is better at schooling than others” and so forth have been explored at neuro-cognitive, speed of information processing and social contextual levels. Findings about individual differences in children’s intelligence, speed of information processing, ERP, and self-concept etc. are summarized in the present article Related Articles | Metrics

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The Development of Children’s Science Concept Zhu Liqi 2006, 14 (4):  569-573.  Abstract ( 2607 )   PDF (216KB) ( 3250 )   The paper reviewed our study on children’s understanding of science concepts, including children’s naïve biology, naïve physics and their relation with their theory of mind, meaning to explore the relation of children’s understanding in the three core knowledge domains. We explored children’s understanding of growth, aging, illness/health and death. We also investigated children’s naïve physics, intending to find out children’s cognitive potential and to enhance their naïve conception changing to scientific understanding. Factors that may influence children’s understanding were also investigated. It may shed some light on science education Related Articles | Metrics

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Searching for a Personality Structure of Chinese: A Theoretical Hypothesis of a Six Factor Model of Personality Traits 2006, 14 (4):  574-585.  Abstract ( 1594 )   PDF (456KB) ( 6689 )   Finding a latent structure for personality traits has been consistently one of the focuses in personality research, while finding empirical evidence of culture-general or culture-specific nature for a personality structure is at present one of the important topics in personality research. Therefore, it can be seen that there have disputation over the number of factors (or dimensions) for such a personality structure, and over the adaptability of a structure from one culture to people of another culture. The present paper summarizes various findings resulted from a series of studies on CPAI (Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory) over the past period of 20 years to put forward a Six Factor Model (SFM). Based on the responses to IR and O factor of SFM from the samples of Chinese and American, the paper therefore suggest that the number of factors and culture-specific nature in any of the existing personality structures be only meaningful in terms of methodology and epistemology adopted by its researchers. The only way to find a personality structure of culture-general or culture-specific is to let personality psychologists of many cultural backgrounds work together equally Related Articles | Metrics

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Human Resource Development Based on Competency Model Shi kan 2006, 14 (4):  586-595.  Abstract ( 1677 )   PDF (440KB) ( 5979 )   Research into Human Research Development and Management based on Competency Model has been momentum in last forty years in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management research. The author summarized the main research conducted by his work team since 1980s, about Competency constructing in different industry, and the leadership behavior related to it based on Chinese transition economy background and special cultural background. Also, since Competency Model is one of most popular practice in Human Resource Development, the author introduced the application of Competency Model in Chinese Human Resource Development and Management System practices. The suggestion for further research was discussed Related Articles | Metrics

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A Study on Psychopathology and Psychotherapy of Internet Addiction Gao Wenbin, Chen Zhiyan 2006, 14 (4):  596-603.  Abstract ( 3802 )   PDF (499KB) ( 10113 )   A study on the internet addiction of Chinese youth by psychological scales, deep interview, brain event-related potentials (ERPs) and heart rate variability (HRV). Focus on the causations, psychopathology, diagnosis methods and psychotherapy of internet addiction. Basing on data from the investigation and experiments, these results and conclusions were received. 1. To classify the internet using problems of Chinese youth from angle of psychological developing and advanced diagnosis methods. 2. To analyze the causations of internet addiction and explain the psychopathological mechanisms by Psychological Decompensation Hypothesis. 3. To explain the brain mechanisms by attention facilitation mechanism. 4. Making the Systemic Compensation Psychotherapy Plan, including group, family, individual and parents psychological intervention. This plan obtained very good effect on the clinical study Related Articles | Metrics

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A Review on Time Metaphor Chen Yan;Huang Xiting 2006, 14 (4):  604-609.  Abstract ( 1442 )   PDF (494KB) ( 4222 )   The study reviewed the achievement of theoretical and practical study on time metaphor in the past decades. With the analysis of the conceptual dimensions of time metaphor representation, it summed up that the archetype of time metaphor is space-time metaphor. The structural characteristics of space-time metaphor according to its moving methods, directions and shapes are discussed. After the analysis and research of the psychological mechanism of space-time metaphor and the interrelation of space, time schemas in the metaphorical mapping, the Weak Metaphorical Structuring View beat other theoretical hypothesis and won more support theoretically and practically. Current time metaphor study mainly focuses on the semantic analysis and cross-culture study, hence the future study may emphasize on the more microcosmic cognitive process of time metaphor and the interaction between the process and personality Related Articles | Metrics

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Two Representation Systems of Number Wang Naiyi;Luo Yuejia;Li Hong 2006, 14 (4):  610-617.  Abstract ( 1561 )   PDF (574KB) ( 2426 )   Numerical representation is the basis of mathematical abilities. A hot topic about numerical representation is whether there are two distinct numerical representation systems: the small precise number system and the large approximate number system. The article reviewed researches on numerical representations in different fields, and summarized evidences supporting the dissociation between the two systems. Numerical representation within the range of 1~3 had a set-size signature was proposed to base on attention to objects themselves per se. Therefore it was sensitive to perceptive properties of objects, and was precise representations about numerosities. While numerical representation for numbers above 4 had a Weber ratio signature. It was suggested to base on analog magnitudes, and was approximate representations of numerosities. However, evidences from the brain imaging field had not gained agreement on this issue. At last, the article brought forth the potential questions about the two basic numerical representation hypothesis Related Articles | Metrics

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Choice Preference in Decision-makin Li Ailisha;Zhang Qinglin 2006, 14 (4):  618-624.  Abstract ( 1797 )   PDF (521KB) ( 3611 )   With regard to the variability of choice preference in decision-making, there existed three schools of differently oriented explanations. The first one, based on the concept of utility, discussed the mechanisms of choice preference derived from evaluation models and utility discounting respectively. The second one, based on the concept of mental representation, investigated the effect of construal level on choice preference. The third one, based on concepts of connectionist and artificial neural network, explored the effects of field distance and loss aversion bias respectively on choice preference Related Articles | Metrics

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Review on the Theories of Infant Face Preference Chen Guang;Zhu Bi 2006, 14 (4):  625-630.  Abstract ( 2263 )   PDF (483KB) ( 3313 )   Face is the most special stimuli in infants’ early visual experience. Young infants preferentially attend to face-like stimuli at birth. This is so-called face preference. It seems likely that the development of face preference reflects the development of infants’ perceptional process and has important social meanings. The article introduces five main infant face preference theories, including: Linear system model, Right Hemisphere Advantage Model, CONPEC Theory, Vision Module Theory and Nonspecific Bias Theory. Not only the relationship but also the argument of these theories is discussed. Finally, some commentaries on new research orientation are provided Related Articles | Metrics

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Psychological Researches on Job Search Behaviors Liu Zewen;Song Zhaoli;Liu Huashan 2006, 14 (4):  631-635.  Abstract ( 1073 )   PDF (477KB) ( 3363 )   Psychologists see effective job search behaviors as precondition of successful employment. Job search behavior is a complex and dynamic process, three dimensions to evaluate job search behavior are described here: frequency-intensity, content-direction, temporal-persistent. There have been many researches about the predictors of job search behavior, and they have obtained various outcomes. The evaluation of job search outcomes has made new progress recently, that is, rather than regarding employment status as a dichotomization-employment and unemployment, but considering kinds of underemployments. The paper commented on some future salient features of job search behavior Related Articles | Metrics

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Team Diversity: Measurement, Outcomes and Moderators Liu Jia, Xu Yan 2006, 14 (4):  636-640.  Abstract ( 1603 )   PDF (476KB) ( 8829 )   This review summarizes recent researches on team diversity. First it is shown that the dimensions of team diversity; Second, the measurements have discussed; Third it analyzes the outcomes of diversity and its moderators. Finally future studies should investigate the interaction between multi-dimensions of diversity and assess underlying diversity as well as readily-detected diversity. What’s more, researchers should consider the context of organization, and explore outcomes of diversity in wider range Related Articles | Metrics